It's full of strange and inexplicable decisions, like the baffling choice to frame the whole series as a story being told by the main character via rap ballad performed in concert in the mid-'90s. It's also one of the coolest things I've seen all year.

A coming-of-age drama anchored in the late '70s Bronx hip-hop and disco scenes, "The Get Down" has a deep respect for the innovations it's portraying-and the pioneers responsible for those breakthroughs...

If the first two episodes of The Get Down left you puzzling over Cadillac and Fat Annie's necessity to its intersecting plots, let it be known that the riddle of their presence will bedevil you still in episodes three and four.